Hey guys! Here's the third chapter. I've been kind of at a loss as to what to write, or rather, how to write this chapter. I wanted to stay true to Brennan's character traits without making the story seem implausible. I hope I got it right. Or, at least close.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. When I first started writing fic, I didn't think that reviews would mean much so me. Woo, I was wrong. Reviews totally make my day!!!!!

She woke up to the sounds of people moving around her. Her eyes were heavy, forcing her to keep them closed. She felt as though she were slowly swimming towards the top of a deep pool. The sounds are her were muted and light was filtering through her eyelids. Finally, she broke through the top, and opened her eyes. Immediately, she groaned and closed them again. The light was very bright, making her throbbing head, throb all the more. She groaned again when she tried to lift her arms to rub the sleep out of her eyes and accidentally tugged on her IV.

Wait, an IV? Where was she?

"Bones?" She heard Booth's voice next to her right side. "Bones, are you awake?"

"Yes, Booth, I am. Although, I seem to be having some trouble keeping my eyes open. Where am I?"

"Well, you're in the hospital."

"What? Why am I here?" She opened her eyes now, ignoring the added pain in her skull. She took in her surroundings, noticing the IV that was hooked to an IV stand next to her bed. Her room seemed to be some pinkish color, salmon maybe? There was a curtain dividing the room in half, blocking, what she assumed was another bed. There were two chairs next to her bed, one on either side. The one on her right was occupied by Booth. He wasn't as fresh looking as he usually was. He was wearing jeans and a rumpled t-shirt, and his eyes look tired and slightly red. She noticed that he was holding her hand tightly in his.

"You don't remember?" He looked surprised. She didn't like this, waking up in the hospital, not remembering when or how she got here. She searched her memory and found nothing but a black hole. The last thing she remembered was leaving the lab around eight.

"No. I don't have any recollection of how or why I'm here." This only seemed to further agitate him. His expression grew a little darker as his jaw clenched. She was starting to get slightly scared. "Why am I here Booth?"

"Well." He stopped. She watched his forehead wrinkle as if he was thinking really hard. She was starting to get really worried now. Never had Booth avoided her questions like this. It actually looked as if he were in physical pain.

"Booth, please. You're starting to scare me." She was desperate now. She had to know what was scaring Booth so much. "Have I been in… a coma?" She visibly shook at this possibility. She hated to think about how much time had passed. What if she'd been out for a long time? What if her position at the Jeffersonian had been filled? She started to breathe short, fast breaths as all these thoughts flitted through her head.

"What? No! I'm sorry. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to word this delicately. I can have Angela tell you if you want. I mean, she's better at this sort of thing."

"Please! Just tell me." She squeezed that hand that was holding her, adding her left hand atop his. "Please. I trust you; I want to hear it from you." He sighed and swiped his hand over his face, pausing to rub his eyes. He let go of her hand, and she almost cried out from the loss. But, she was quickly placated when he climbed on the bed, causing her to scoot over to make room for him. He grabbed both of her hands with his, squeezing them reassuringly and began.

"Okay. From what I gathered from Angela, you guys decided to go out to some new club. She and Roxie were dancing when you decided to leave. You were outside of the club, when…" His voice broke. Oh god, she was terrified. He cleared his throat and began again. "When you were grabbed and dragged into the alley next to the club. Your face was smashed off the wall. That's when you passed out, and that's why your face is so bruised and swollen." As he said that, she raised her hand and gingerly touched her forehead. However, her forehead was much further out than it was supposed to be, causing her eyes to water as she hit it harder than she intended. She cried out.

"Well, what'd you expect?" Booth said. She could tell he was trying to lighten the intense situation. He forced a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He grabbed her hand again, and this time tugged it into his lap. "No more feeling wounds until after the story."

"Okay." She stopped struggling to free her hand, and sat quietly.

"Anyway, you apparently woke up after a while, because you found your phone and called me."

"I did?"

"Yes. You told me you were propped up in an alley and that your forehead was bleeding pretty badly. Well, I got there… fast, with some serious help from the sirens. I found you against the wall bleeding like you said. You had your sweater pressed against your forehead, trying to stop the bleeding. You actually apologized to me; you said that you'd dragged me out in the middle of the night or some nonsense. Which was ridiculous, by the way. There's no place I would've rather been. Well, I would've rather have had you somewhere else obviously, than in some dingy alley…" He blushed slightly as he realized how that sounded. "Erm... Whatever, you know what I mean. You were pretty beaten up though, and obviously shaken. So I picked you up and… well, held you until you fell asleep. I attribute the sleeping part to the fact that you were crying, exhausted, and had five beers."

"Five?" Wow. She must've been having fun. "What was I doing?"

"According to Ange, you were sitting at the bar in deep thought. Apparently you weren't even dancing or anything, just sitting and knocking 'em back."

"That's all? I just got beaten up in an alley?"She knew it wasn't good, but it was way better than what she'd been expecting.

"Well, you were mugged. Your purse was totally cleaned out; your wallet was devoid of anything, including receipts. Even your license was gone. Everything from it was strewn about the alley, like the person stood there and shook it onto the ground, then dug through the mess."

"I admit this isn't exactly the way I pictured my night ending. Actually, I can't remember anything besides leaving work this evening. But it's not that bad. I can recuperate at home. And, I'd like to go home now. I need a hot shower and several hours of restful sleep."

"That's not the end of the story Temperance." Her head jerked up at the use of her given name. He rarely used it, and when he did, it was always seemed to be in a less than ideal situation.

"Okay…" She looked up at him, watching his expression become more pained.

"Um, well, when we got to the hospital, the doctor gave you some painkillers, to help your head in advance, just in case you woke up. Anyway, they started their examination, concluding that most of your wounds weren't that bad, just, uhh what'd he say? Oh, superficial lacerations. Then, I pointed out the gash on your thigh." She yanked her hands out of his and pulled the blanket up. She could tell where this was headed, and she didn't like it one bit. "Hey! What did I say about feeling wounds?" He snatched her hands up this time pulling her into his lap, not just her hands. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to his chest. She started to shake. This is going to be bad. I almost don't want to know.

"Booth, just tell me." She tried to pull away from him, so she could look into his face. But, he just held her tighter.

"When the doctors started to look at your scratches and bruises on your legs, they discovered something else. While you were unconscious, your attacker… he…he raped you." She stiffened. She knew it was going to be bad. Rape though? That hadn't even been on her list.

For a few minutes, she just sat there in abject horror, her whole body stiff in Booth's ever tender grasp. This wasn't who she was. She wasn't the type of woman who gets dragged into an alley and raped. She was self-reliant, independent, strong, and this, this stuff just didn't happen to her. After her parents had left, and she'd been thrust into the foster system, she hadn't had any control over which family she went with. Sometimes, it'd be a really shitty one, where the "father" would hit her. Not punch her or knock her around, but maybe slap her when she broke a plate. Stuff like that made her feel worthless and she knew that she wasn't. From that point on, as soon as she got away from that foster family, she knew her life would be more than that. She wasn't going to be one of those people, those people that feel sorry for their childhood and use it as a reason to be a drain on society. She was going to make her own life. Since she graduated from high school, she'd made sure that she wouldn't be powerless again.

She couldn't stop the sob that ripped from her throat as her shock slowly subsided into realization. After everything in her whole life, her karate classes, her Ph. D.'s, everything had failed her in the end. She still felt like that 15 year old girl when she woke up and found Russ gone. She still felt like the helpless little girl who couldn't stand her ground against a slap from her foster father. She hadn't felt like this in almost 20 years. However, there was one difference. Actually, it was a major difference. While she'd been alone all those years ago, fighting within her own mind to build walls to keep herself safe. This time, there was a strong pair of arms wrapped around her. She could feel his hands slowly rubbing up and down her arm, as he whispered reassuring words to her. Surprisingly, despite the cruelness of the world, he touch and words were actually lending her strength.

She swiped her hands underneath her eyes. Crying doesn't help the situation at all. She set her jaw, and wrestled her clinical detachment to the surface.

Booth was totally in awe of this woman. Here he'd told her one of the hardest things he'd ever had to tell anyone, and she only needed about five minutes to adjust to the reality. Then she asked him questions about whether or not all the proper precautions had been taken in case of STD's and unwanted pregnancy. He explained to her that they had all been taken care of, but that there was still a chance that those things could occur. She nodded at his words, absorbing the information, analyzing it, then retracting back into her own thoughts.

He watched her closely. Seeing as she wasn't even paying attention to him anymore, he could watch his fill. He'd shifted back to his chair after she'd stopped sobbing. Her muscles had tensed and stiffened. He took that as his cue that his comfort was no longer needed.

From what he could tell, as he sat there and watched her think, she was putting on a front. He'd known her long enough to be able to tell when she thought she needed to be tough. She still didn't quite grasp that around him, she could drop the prickly exterior.

He sighed inwardly. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she was. Despite all the bruises marring her smooth, white skin, he still thought that she was breathtaking. He'd long ago come to terms with the fact that he could never have her. He'd told her that people like them, in high-risk situations, couldn't cross that line and have a relationship. However, all of that hadn't stopped him from admiring her from afar. A fact that her father had picked up on, he believed. Wow, here she is sitting in a hospital bed beaten and battered and… and all you can think about is how pretty she is? He snorted at his stupidity.

"Booth?" He shook his head and came out of his daze to find her looking at him pointedly.

"Huh?"

"You made a noise."

"Oh." He coughed in embarrassment. He'd been caught musing. "Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing. Sorry, hospitals tend to drive me a bit wonky. I'm just in them too much. Comes with the territory I guess."

"I don't know what that means." He smiled. He was glad that there were just some things you couldn't change.

"It means they tend to knock me off my game. What were you thinking?" It was out of his mouth before he really had a chance to edit that question in his head. Of course he knew what she was thinking. At least he didn't ask her how she was doing… If he'd done that, he might as well have stuck his foot all the way down his throat.

"I was wondering when I'll be able to go home." She didn't look at him when she said this. Instead, she focused on picking on a loose thread in the crappy hospital blanket. His eyes widened. He hadn't expected that.

"Um, I think that the doctor said that they wanted to keep you overnight for observation."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. Did he say whether or not I had a concussion?"

"Yeah, a mild one. They just want to make sure is all." He honestly didn't know where to bring the conversation next. He could ask about work, but then she'd ask him to get her laptop and cell phone so she could try and work from her hospital bed. He could ask her about her Dad. There's an idea, he thought.

"How…"

"Can I see Angela? Is she here?" He closed his mouth quickly, and nodded his head.

"Yes, she's here. I'll go track her down for you." He tried to let the sting of that roll off his back. He'd offered earlier to go get Angela for her. It's only natural when something like this happened that she'd want another woman. It bothered him that he didn't know what to say to make the situation right. He wondered if he'd ever be able to say anything to make her feel better. He knew this wasn't a thing he could just make go away with a few well chosen words.

"Thanks, Booth. For everything." Again she couldn't look him in the eye, like it was painful for her. His chest hurt to think that she might use this to push him away. She didn't realize how much he needed her. He wanted to be there for her during this.

"Bones, listen to me. I promise you that I will always be there for you when you need me. Whether it's the middle of the day, or the middle of the night. You're my best friend Bones. That's what I'm here for." He grasped the bottom of her chin lightly, mindful of her wounds, and made her meet his eyes. "Guy hug?" He smiled his charm smile in a last ditch attempt to lighten her mood, as much as it could be lightened. Surprisingly, it worked. She smiled, albeit a small one, but it reached her eyes, lightening the blue by at least a shade.

"How can I resist the charm smile?" She gave in and opened her arms. He engulfed her gently, rubbing his cheek on the top of her head.

"You're gonna be alright Bones. I've never met a stronger woman than you. If you can survive getting buried alive, almost eaten by dogs, shot, blown up by a serial killer, and all of the other clearly painful things you've gone through in your life, you'll survive this. I promise, baby." He almost slapped himself when the pet name left his mouth. She probably wouldn't kick his ass, seeing as she was basically bedridden. But he bet even a slightly incapacitated Brennan could still punch him in the face.

He pulled back when the impending hit didn't land. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. But, she didn't let them fall. Instead, she blinked a few times, set her jaw and looked him with eyes that looked devoid of their usual spark. Her eyes appeared to have abandoned their normal cerulean in favor of dull gray. He'd never seen her eyes change so drastically. A few moments ago they'd been blue when she'd half smiled. Just like that, they were almost a lifeless gray. He decided that it was probably time to go get Ange, maybe she would help soften the walls the Bones had just built. Maybe she'd feel a little better. He impulsively pressed his lips to her cheek.

"I'll be back." She nodded at him, then turned towards the window. He decided that he'd probably sleep in the lobby tonight so he could be here in the morning when she woke up. He was wondering how comfortable the chairs were to sleep in. But, he thought, there'd be pudding in the cafeteria. He heaved out a loud sigh when he thought about the number of puddings he'd need to lift his mood. He turned the corner heading towards the waiting room and totally missed the weird look the on-duty nurse gave him.

Thanks for bearing with me! I really tried to stay true to both Booth and Brennan's characters here. It's kind of hard when a situation like this hasn't arisen in the show. But, don't let anyone say I shy away from a challenge. I am headed back to school really soon and starting classes again, so my updating might be even more erratic than usual. Sorry guys!

Side note: Who else was totally annoyed to find that Bones wasn't on Thursday night because the President had to give his farewell address?! I almost cried! The only thing getting me through the next week is that there will be two new episodes next week. Oh, and who didn't love the "are you this spontaneous during real sex" comment Booth made in the spoiler for DTitPH??!! *sigh*